What Could Be
by Stratagem
Summary: Stories set in an AU future where Clarice and John get married and have a couple kids, JD and Hope. Very fluffy most of the time. Lorna and Marcos also have a kid, a daughter named Aurora.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own The Gifted!

A/N: This is a future family AU for The Gifted that tumblr user bisexualblink and myself have created together! It's been a LOT of fun, and there will be a lot of these in the future. The Thunderblink kids are 8 and 4 here.

* * *

 **Fake Out**

"…love…"

"…uper duper sleepy."

"Mommy…"

Clarice rolled over, ignoring the voices and dragging the pillow over her head. She slid her arm across the mattress, expecting to brush her fingers against her husband or one of the kids, but there wasn't anything. Huh. Bed to herself. Oh rare luxury.

She sprawled out, shoving one leg over on John's still-warm side of the head, using her free hand to snag his pillow and drag it to her side. Getting the bed to herself? She must've still been dreaming.

"I think she's not gonna wake up."

John's laugh was muffled through the pillow over her head, but she still heard it. "She's already awake, she's just faking."

Oh whatever, she was not. She was definitely still going to catch those last few minutes of sleep before they—

"Here, JD, use this."

 _John, you dirty enabler._ Clarice braced herself, and sure enough, a second later she was batted across the back with something soft and squishy. Determinedly, she didn't flinch or wriggle around. Instead, she forced herself to stay perfectly still and pretend her son wasn't gently walloping her with a pillow.

"Mooom!" JD sang, laughter in his voice, "You have to get up, come on. We're going on a hike, remember?"

She felt Hope sit down, her back to Clarice's side, and Hope's little hand patted her hair. "And I get to wear my tutu."

"Nope," John said, "We talked about that already. Tutus and the woods don't mix, princess."

"I can wear the _green_ tutu."

"That's not what I meant."

JD tugged at the pillow covering Clarice's head, and she had to hold on to keep it in place. Changing tactics, JD crawled up toward the top of the bed and laid down on Clarice's other side. "We brought you a muffin! And coffee. And I brought a tangerine 'cause you liked the ones that Uncle Marcos got from that guy, the one with the cool scales."

Oh, right, that guy from Florida who had been going up to Canada. He had control over plants, and he had grown a temporary tangerine tree for Marcos when Marcos had guided him through Georgia. Marcos had brought the extras home to the HQ for everyone. JD's coaxing was tempting, and almost enough to make her get up, but she also liked laying there with the two kids boxing her in. It was nice, so she stayed under her pillow a little longer while Hope played with her hair and JD nuzzled her shoulder.

"You two are spoiling her," John said, and she heard him put some stuff down on the nightstand. Breakfast. "She's never going to get up now."

Hope dropped back down on the bed and started to crawl under the covers. Clarice automatically snatched her and pulled her close, letting go of the pillow in exchange for something better. JD flopped over Clarice's back, and then the mattress dropped a little as John sat down on the edge. A strong, calloused hand wrapped around her leg and tugged, and all three of them slid toward John.

"You don't dislike hiking that much," John said, resting his hand on the back of her neck and then threading his fingers into her hair, "You just want to keep the kids for yourself."

"I'll take you, too," Clarice said, opening her eyes into slits and grinning wickedly at him, "I'll keep all of you for myself."

John smirked before leaning down and stealing a kiss. "And exactly how are you going to keep me?"

"I have my ways."

"You're being mushy," JD said, shoving up onto his elbows. His shaggy dark hair fell in his face, but his bright green eyes, almost the same shade as her own, peered at her hopefully. "What about hiking?"

Clarice was about to explain how they could go hiking tomorrow when a furry black and white blur raced into the room and leapt on the bed. Zingo licked John's face and crawled over Clarice and bumped against JD and then started digging into the covers after Hope. Any hope Clarice had held for a quiet morning was instantly shattered and quickly followed by peals of giggles and little shrieks of laughter from Hope and JD.

The dog unburied Hope. The four-year-old pushed her dark purple and blue hair out of her golden-brown eyes and grabbed for Zingo before the dog bounced off the bed, dashing out of the room with the kids tearing after her.

Clarice sat up and brushed at her own messy hair before glancing at John through purple strands.

"What kind of muffin did you bring as a peace offering?"

John smirked and reached over to grab the muffin. "Apple cinnamon."

"Mmm. You're forgiven." She supposed she could get up and go hiking if she had coffee and an apple cinnamon muffin to bolster her.

"I didn't ask for forgiveness," John teased, "You _like_ hiking, Clarice. So I don't need forgiveness."

"You're still forgiven for waking me up."

John looped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his side as she started to chow down on the muffin. "Thank you?"

"Hell yeah, thank you."


	2. Spring

Disclaimer: I don't own The Gifted!

A/N: Prompt: "Get married, they said. Have kids, they said. It'll be fun, they said."

Takes place in the Thunderblink Family AU, after they've made a home in their new HQ! It's an old abandoned summer camp in the Georgia mountains. JD is nine, Hope is five. Takes place after "Take My Hand."

* * *

Spring  


"Ah, not a step further." Clarice held up her hands, warding off the two little swamp monsters standing on the porch before they could come into the cabin. She should've expected this since it had been so rainy that week and the kids had been cooped up indoors for too long. Waaay too long judging by the look of them.

"JD started it," Hope said, her lower lip poked out in a pout, "He put it on my face. I'm gross." She was covered from head to toe in splotches of mud, which wasn't like her. Hope wasn't one of those kids who liked to get all dirty, so seeing her look like she jumped in a bog was a surprising.

JD, on the other hand, looked totally in his element. "I thought we should practice camouflage," he said, running a hand over his forehead. The half-dried mud clumped and smeared and when he flicked his hand, bits of dirt flew off his fingers. "We were playing hide and seek."

"You could've played without swimming in a mud puddle," Clarice said, her eyebrows knitting together as she considered her options. There was no way she was going to let the two of them come inside the cabin and cover it with mud, not when it was semi-clean. It was a hot, muggy summer day, so she could just march the two of them down to the river and dunk them a few times. Or get Maya to soak them with her hydrokinesis. Or wait, she had an idea…

"We didn't, we just threw it. And it was more fun," JD protested, "We won."

"I want to take a bath," Hope said, looking miserable.

"How did you manage to get so dirty, anyways?" Clarice said, almost reaching out to brush the mud off Hope's cheeks.

"Aurora turned it into a mudball fight," JD said, admiration in his voice, "Like a snowball fight—"

"But with mud," Clarice finished, shaking her head, "You hooligans could've got it in your eyes, y'know. Bad idea."

"I got it on my dress," Hope said, as if that was just as terrible.

"I see that. It's all over you." Clarice nodded and then clapped her hands together. "Well, you've both won a trip to the garden. Let's go."

The two of them glanced at each other but must've decided to not push their luck by asking questions. Instead, they traipsed after her as she headed up the path from their section of cabins to the mess hall and the massive vegetable and herb gardens out beside it. Since getting supplies from town was hard, the Underground grew a lot of their own food. They also raised livestock and hunted deer, ducks, and other wildlife to supplement their food supplies.

"Get married, they said," Clarice muttered under her breath, "Have kids, they said. It'll be _fun_ , they said."

"What're we doing?" JD asked, grinning at some of the other mutants on the path as they passed by.

"We're going to get you two cleaned off so you can take baths without destroying the cabin," Clarice said.

"The mud's cracking," Hope said. Sure enough, little lines were appearing on the mostly-dried mud on her arms and legs.

"Don't worry, it'll be off soon," Clarice said.

They trekked all the way up to the gardens and then over to the water spigot. One of the water hoses was still attached to the spigot, so Clarice grabbed the metal hook and pulled it up, letting the water flow. A moment later, crystal clear cold mountain spring water started flowing out of the hose, and the kids guessed what was coming next.

"No, it's cold!" Hope said, stepping back, nearly tripping over her own feet.

"Mom, no way, that's freezing," JD protested. They all knew that while the river was cold, the water from the spring that fed this particular hose was especially icy.

"Good thing it's so hot out," Clarice said with a grin, and she turned the hose on the kids, sticking her thumb in the middle of the stream so it became a spray. They both shrieked and raced away, but Clarice chased after them. "Get back here!" She flicked her wrist and popped open a tiny portal. Another appeared over JD's head, which soon got soaked when she pointed the hose at the portal closest to her. "There's no escape! Accept your fate!"

"Mom!" JD flailed and jumped away while Hope shimmered and teleported herself farther away. Clarice flicked open a third portal and blasted a stream of water at her daughter.

"Hope, come back here. I mean it, you have to get clean."

Hope held up her hands to fend off the water then 'ported back over to Clarice in an array of purple and blue lights. "It's cold," she said, but she was smiling. It probably felt good since it was like a bazillion degrees outside. She danced around, wriggling as Clarice washed her down, getting the mud off her and her clothes. JD kept running back and forth, and every time he got close, Clarice would spray him. Soon they were all laughing and soaked through, even Clarice.

Clarice noticed John walking toward them before the kids did, but she pretended not to, hoping he hadn't seen her spot him. She turned her back to him and looked down at JD and Hope, widening her eyes and then tilting her head back a little, indicating they should take a look. Both of them peeked past her and then took off at their dad, two small soaking wet cannonballs still half-covered in mud.

"Whoa, hey, wait," John said, backing up, hands up and out, but Hope shimmered and jumped on him from behind while JD wildly launched himself into his arms, forcing him to catch him. "Clarice!"

"I didn't tell them to do anything," she said, but at the same time, she flicked open two new portals, "They did it on their own."

John looked at the portal that had appeared over his head and then tilted his head to the side, a don't-you-dare look on his face. Oooooh, but she did dare. She sprayed the hose right into the portal, allowing John to enjoy all the benefits of an unexpected ice cold shower.

He closed his eyes for a moment, gathering himself, and then he let out a yell and raced at her, carrying both of the kids like he had a couple kittens clinging to him. Clarice laughed and took off, but he caught up with her and started playfully wrestling her for the hose.

"Give it up, it's mine now," he said.

"Never!"

"Get him, Mom!"


	3. Christmas Candy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own The Gifted!

A/N: JD - 6, Hope - 2.

Prompt fill! With the Thunderblink Family!

5 -"I don't think I've ever seen that much candy before."

"Well don't get excited, it's all mine."

3 "You know what I'm officially renaming our kids? The Bringer of Destruction and Chaos Creator. I'm editing their birth certificates right now."

"Bad day, huh?"

* * *

 **Christmas Candy**

John stopped in the doorway to his and Clarice's tiny living room and tilted his head to the side as he looked at where his wife was sitting on the floor with a dragon's hoard worth of candy. "I don't think I've ever seen that much candy before."

"Well don't get excited, it's all mine," she shot back, not even looking up at him. She had a candy cane sticking out of her mouth like a cigar, and she was sorting the rest of the candy into piles. Peppermint here, chocolate there, hard candy over in this area, miscellaneous to the far side. She crunched down on the candy cane and made a face. "I don't even like this, it's Spree-flavored."

John raised an eyebrow and she shot him a frown, guessing at what he was thinking it.

"I'm eating it so your children can't," she said, "They're with Lorna, by the way, regretting their poor choices."

"And why are the kids banned from candy, besides obvious sugar-high related reasons?" he asked.

He noticed that she called them 'his' kids, which meant they had caused some kind of problem. Seeing how they were two and six, that could be any number of things. Since Hope had learned to walk, she, JD, and Aurora had become a trio of troublemakers, though they were the cutest troublemakers anyone could ask for.

"You know how we had a candy supply in the storeroom that we were saving for Christmas? And how we kept thinking we didn't have enough even though we kept adding to it every week?" She spread her hands, indicating the massive amount of candy scattered around her. "I gave birth to sugar thieves."

John put his hand over his mouth so she wouldn't see him smiling. "You're kidding."

"Oh, no, I assure you, I am not." Clarice pulled the candy cane out of her mouth and jabbed it at him, making a point. "They've been filching from the main supply and hiding it under JD's bed for _months_."

"I'm honestly surprised they didn't just eat it." Pushing away from the door, he walked over and sat down across from her. He joined in on Clarice's sorting, or he tried to. Her hand darted out and popped the back of his when he tried to pick up a piece of candy. "I'm helping."

"No, I've got a system."

"I see that."

"I think JD was the mastermind behind hiding it," Clarice said, tossing some chocolate into the pile. "He has the worst sweet tooth, and he's always worried about not getting dessert."

"So…he's stockpiling in case he doesn't get a dessert some day?" John asked, trying to decide if that bothered him or not. Did JD understand that sometimes it was difficult for them to get food, especially the sugary stuff? Even though he was only six, he was pretty perceptive.

"I don't know if it's that so much as he's basically a dragon when it comes to candy. He wants all of it." She stuck the candy cane back in her mouth. "You want to know how I found this under the bed? I was cleaning up JD's room because him and Aurora had a slime war."

John made a face. "What do you mean, a slime war? I wasn't gone that long." He had spent most of the day out at another safehouse in a small town toward the south, helping them set-up a defense system.

"Oh, you were gone long enough." Clarice crunched down on the candy cane, biting off a decent-sized chunk. "Somebody showed them how to make slime with glue and borax—"

"How…"

"There was Borax in the laundry room," Clarice said, holding up her hands, "And the glue came from the kids' school supplies. It was apparently a science lesson, but yeah, the kids decided to have a snot war."

John had started subtly sorting along with her, keeping his movements small so she didn't automatically stop him. "That's disgusting."

"No kidding," Clarice said, "But you know what I'm officially renaming our kids? The Bringer of Destruction and Chaos Creator. I'm editing their birth certificates right now."

"Bad day, huh…" John reached over and cupped the side of her face, stroking his thumb along her cheek. "Sorry I wasn't here."

"Yeah, 'cause it's all your fault," Clarice teased, leaning into his touch. "That's why you don't get any candy."

John smiled and pulled his hand back, helping her sort. "Did you already figure out some kind of consequence for this?"

"No candy ever again ever," Clarice said, flashing a grin, "But seriously, no. I've got some ideas, but I thought we could talk about it first and agree on our plan." She smirked. "Right now the punishment is sitting with Lorna and waiting for a verdict."

"Oh, that's the worst," John said, remembering similar times in his life. Waiting for a consequence and knowing you had disappointed your parents was way worse than actually enduring the punishment.

"I was thinking that an extra minute of chores per candy for JD could cover it," Clarice said, running her hand over the hard candy pile. "Though that doesn't work for Hope."

"Hope is two," John said, "I think the no candy for a while punishment is about as good as it gets with her. It was under JD's bed anyways, right?"

"Yep."


End file.
